Contents

Ky Audit

Kentucky is paying too much for its Fredericksburg DUI lawyer jails according to State auditor Crit Luallen. (Luallen, 2006) She released an analysis of spending by 120 counties in Kentucky.(Luallen, 2006 The analysis says county jails make up 244 million in 2005.(Luallen, 2006) Half come from county fiscal courts and 32% comes from state government.(Luallen, 2006) In 2004 Kentucky had the fifth highest growth in prisoners. Kentucky also came in second in the number of state and federal prisoners that are ppi claims held in county jails. (Luallen, 2006)

The report showed that the counties are operating proposal software county jails at a buy pistachios
cost that is too high. Some inmates are costing the MFA Degree counties $20-80 per inmate per day. (Luallen, 2006)

The analysis found that stun gun management Picnic Baskets challenges are from the structure of the Kentucky jail system. (Luallen, 2006) The current system prevents a Phuket Real estate statewide strategy for better improvements and cost saving measures, this is because of cost shifting too smaller counties. The recommendation was for Kentucky State to Phuket property take over county jails. (Luallen, 2006)

Auditor Luallen said that the current financial crises that Kentucky faces would prevent the immediate consolidation of county jails into the Department of Corrections. (Luallen, 2006) “I recommend we begin planning toward a unified system and develop a phased-in approach. But in the meantime we should take action to get current costs under control.” she said. (Luallen, 2006)
Luallen added, “The data now exists to evaluate how the Commonwealth’s system of county jails operates. Kentucky’s leaders must now find solutions to this problem through thoughtful discussion and debate.”(Luallen, 2006)

Kentucky prevailing wage law repeal it

The Kentucky Labor Department has ordered a computer company to pay $500,000 to its workers because they were not paid prevailing wage. Yet, their contract with the state doesn’t say they have to pay their workers prevailing wage. But once the Kentucky Labor Department brought up prevailing wage, they started paying their workers prevailing wage. The prevailing wage for electricians to put up the cables for computers is $24-25 an hour, but the computer company was paying their workers $9-12 an hour before they started paying them the prevailing wage. The Labor Department did an audit of Bill Rutherford’s Kentucky based computer firm, and found that he only owes employees $250,000 to make up for the time his workers weren’t getting prevailing wage, but the Kentucky Labor Department said they were fining him $250,000 weight loss pills for not paying his workers prevailing wage in the beginning. (Kentucky-Based Computer Supplier Told to Pay Its Workers Prevailing Wage the Charleston Gazette, W.Va.Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News July 7, 2000)
Kentucky cannot afford the prevailing wage law in this poor economy. Kentucky has a budget deficit and saving $60 million by repealing the prevailing wage law would help balance the budget and bring 1 million jobs to Kentucky. Prevailing wage laws and raising the minimum wage cost Kentucky a million jobs. Kentucky’s Founding Fathers would be outraged that Kentucky passed a prevailing wage law. When the Kentucky Founders created the Constitution they believed that laws could be passed that didn’t alter the structure of the Kentucky Republic. But a law such as prevailing wage alters the structure of our Republic, and therefore is unconstitutional. Lawmakers passed this prevailing wage law because of pressure from unions, and union members wrote the bill and lawmakers passed it, and the governor signed it into law. But Unions don’t represent the people of Kentucky they represent the interests of the Union. Representatives represent the will of the people who elected them not the will of the unions. Most lawmakers that passed this prevailing wage law had their campaign financed by the unions, which is a conflict of interest. This violates Kentucky’s separation of powers and checks and balances system.
At a hearing in Kentucky about prevailing wages experts from the Kentucky Labor Department said that prevailing hourly wages ranged from $11.14 an hour to $32.55 an hour. There was evidence presented at the hearing from one non union worker named Ron Boughey of David Engineering and Construction in Louisville. He said that his firm pays non union workers a dollar less an hour in skilled trades than Union workers who receive the prevailing wage. (Data for determining prevailing wage for Butler, Warren counties is collected By: Wells, Greg, Bowling Green Daily News (KY), July 22, 2005) Non Union workers have good working conditions, and some make $14 an hour less, but others make $1 an hour less, it depends on the kind of work.
Michael Bennet, a member of a union in Paducah Kentucky said that if Kentucky didn’t have a prevailing wage law he would make $5000 a year less. He is a member of the plumbers and steamfitters local 184 union. According, to union members without the prevailing wage law, union workers would see bad conditions and lower wages, and non unions attract low skilled workers. State law sets wages that contractors must pay construction workers on state-funded projects. This was passed in 1941 when Congress approved the Davis-Bacon Act forcing the federal government to pay prevailing wages for federal projects. According to Governor Fletcher repealing the prevailing wage law would save the state $60 million. (By: Sanders, Matt, Paducah Sun, The (KY), Feb 12, 2006 Unions' members rallying to defend prevailing wage: Fletcher’s Attempt to Reduce Some Construction Wages Attracts Paducah Crowd of More Than 500.) Repealing prevailing wage laws would lead to competition because all companies would be competing at fair market value. Unions have a monopoly on labor, and removing this monopoly would not attract low skilled workers. The reason low skilled workers are attracted to non union Jobs is because unions have a monopoly, but if prevailing wage was repealed the market place wouldn’t pay low skilled workers, they only do that now because they can’t compete with unions. Unions have the government backing them and no -unions don’t, so the Unions have an unfair advantage. crystal trophies, glass awards, custom awards, custom trophies, corporate crystal awards, recognition awards,[crystal awards]

smoking ban

About 22 percent of Kentuckians live in a community with a 100 percent smoke-free workplace law. 22% of Kentucky has a smoke free work place, and 25 counties in Kentucky outlaw smoking in restaurants. "If you think about it, we've really had an explosion of laws in Kentucky," said Hahn, who was a major advocate for Lexington's law. "To have 16 policies passed in the course of four years is a real trend." (Smoking bans spread in Ky.: 16 places follow Lexington's lead By: Ku, Michelle, Lexington Herald-Leader (KY), Apr 27, 2008)

Betty Hamilton, a bar owner says that her profits have dipped sharply since the smoking ban became law a month ago. If the city council members don’t repeal the law, it would go to a citywide vote "I think the business owners should be able to say whether to offer smoking in your bar," said Hamilton, who has operated the watering hole on Business Loop 70 for more than 10 years. "I just feel like it should be left up to the business owners. (Bar owners work to repeal smoking ban By: Leblanc, Matthew, Columbia Daily Tribune (MO), Feb 01, 2007)

Bar owners and nonprofit clubs filed a law suit to keep Hennepin County and the cities of Minneapolis and Bloomington from making smoking bans law at the end of the month. Thursday's lawsuit states that Hennepin County and the cities of Minneapolis and Bloomington had no legal authority to ban smoking because the state has set aside parameters for smokers. According, to the lawyer for the plaintiff the state Clean Indoor Air Act of 1975 sets aside 30% of their space for nonsmoking customers, but allows bars to set aside their entire bar for smoking customers."I will suffer a loss of business as my smoking customers choose to go somewhere else," she said. "I believe the anti-smoking advocates' rights end at my front door." (Bars file suit over smoking bans Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN), Mar 11, 2005 Beth Silver and Bill Gardner)

Charter Schools

Today I want give you the solution to the education crisis in Kentucky. This is a proven solution that has been tried in many states very succesfully. The solution is school choice, which is a multi-fauceted tactical approach to combatting the erosion of the public school system. It involves many components and alternatives to the traditional public school. Today I am going to focus on one component, and that is the charter school, which has been tried in most states successfully; except in Kentucky and several other states where it hasn’t been tried at all. A charter school is a newly created public school that has been granted a charter, and doesn’t have the American Federation of Teachers or the National Education Association dictating school curriculum. It also has a lot of flexibility and operates outside the public school bearaucracy. It is still a public school since it is taxpayer funded. Anybody can start a charter school, but before the school can start; a charter authorizing agency has to approve the charter. Some charter schools are created from scratch and others are converted over from traditional public schools. The public charter schools are free of charge since they’re tax payer funded, and any student in the state is allowed to go there as an option; if they don’t like the traditional public schools in their district. There is no districting it’s open to all the students in the state. If the parents aren’t happy with the charter school they’re free to pull their child out and send them back to their traditional public school. This makes them a much more viable option than magnet schools which are high performing public schools that have stringent districting guidelines. One of the great benefits of charter schools is; they are held accountable for performance. If they don’t meet a strict set of criteria for student achievement and standardized test scores; or if parents aren’t satisfied; they quickly go out of business. They operate under the free market principles of competition, success, efficiency, and results. Many charter schools are still open after 10 years which proves their success. Many of the charter schools also force the traditional public schools in the same area to raise their standards through the edifice of competition.
Many biased studies have been done by the National association of educators and the American Federation of Teachers, which found that the charter schools are lagging behind their traditional school counterparts in student achievement and performance. Recently, Harvard Economics professor Caroline Hoxby conducted her own research studies that found flaws with prior studies by the aforementioned.(Potier Harvard Gazette) In the piece in the harvard gazette on Professor Hoxby’s research findings; the newspaper points out that Professor Hoxby’s study concluded that prior studies were comparing targeted Charter school populations with non-targeted traditional public school populations. Targeted populations are composed of either students with learning disabilities, juvenile-delinquets, or school dropouts. Charter Schools are given incentives and encouraged to open up charter schools for targeted populations. There are non- targeted charter schools open, but much less in number than the targeted charters. She stated it was like comparing apples to zebras. She also found that the sample sizes for the charter school studies were too small to be valid. In most of the studies conducted by the NEA and AFT; they were selecting about four charter school students randomly and then comparing them with a much larger sample size from the traditional public school. In other studies they were using charter schools that had only been open for a year. Kentucky is one of several states that has no school choice program. Many states that have school choice programs have significantly improved their reading and math scores and in the case of charter schools have greatly improved their scores on standardized state tests. According, to the Texas Education Agency; research studies that compared non-targeted charter schools that have been running for 5 or more years to traditional public schools in the same district with non-targeted populations; the students in the charter school had mean test scores that were 36% higher than students in the traditional public school. When comparing non-targeted traditional public school students to non-targeted charter schools that had been open for one year; the charter school students had test scores that were 3% higher than their public school counterparts.(Finn Manno Vanourek 76) In 1998, the center for School Change at the University of Minnesota studied academic achievement in over thirty charter schools in eight states and came to these conclusions: “Charters are showing that they can improve student achievement. This report cites 21 charter schools which improved achievement.” “ Nine schools did not send enough comparable data from one year to the next to determine whether academic gains were made. Two schools provided no data.” “ Seven charters in the group have had their contracts renewed because of improved student achievement and six schools received an award for outstanding performance.” ( Finn,Manno,and Vanourek 75) Another 1998 study conducted in Colorado found that charter performance (in 32 schools that have been operational for 2 or more years) “ is stronger than state averages,stronger than sponsoring district averages, and stronger than the averages of other schools in the sponsoring districts who serve a population of students roughly comparable to the population served by charter schools”. “Morever, “the great majority” of Colorado charter schools “ are meeting- or exceeding- the performance goals defined in their individual charters and school improvement plans.”(Finn,Manno,Vanourek 76)
When we hear about charter schools and the bigger issue of school choice; we are inaudated with information from unreliable media sources, who report what they want to hear or biased research studies conducted by researchers hired by the AFT or NEA or from proponets of charter schools who hire their own researchers to conduct biased studies in favor of charter schools. Rarely are nonbiased objective research study results reported by the media. Most people get information from the news media or from the internet search engine Google, which is the most common used. Many college graduates who have a career as professional researchers understand how time consuming and difficult it is to gather objective non-biased research. Most Americans outside the field of professional research get there information from the news media or from search engines like Google, and consider this information reliable. No wonder after twelve years we still have a debate on charter schools, and charter schools are fewer in number compared to traditional public schools. When credible professional research is done the results are clearly in favor of charter Schools with regards to performance and achievement. Most of the research shows that when non-targeted charter schools that have been open for 5 or more years are compared to their traditional public school counter parts; the charter students have higher test scores, academic gains, and parent satisfaction. They also tend to raise the performance level of the traditional public school in the same area. ( Research Journal of Economics Charter Schools and regular public schools in the United States Hoxby study 2004)
This is the first time in our countries history that media, technology, science, politics, and special interest groups have had such a powerful impact in shaping our opinions, and social, and scientific research has become politically motivated. Most of the research results Americans hear about are performed by legitimate scientists and educational researchers who are hired by either leftwing or right wing special interest groups, think-tanks, unions, lobbying firms, or political action committees. The organization that pays them to conduct research; and has a great impact on their career, and ability to secure funding for their future research projects, has no qualms about firing them and ending their career; if the research results don’t support their particular stance. When I conducted my research I focused in on several states, Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, and Colorado, most of these states have had the most research done on their charter schools, and have had these charter school programs in operation the longest. I focus in on professional peer reviewed studies, and stay completely away from right or left wing think tanks, and media sources.

It is sad to watch parents and children in Kentucky suffer as they’re bonded by the chains of state oppression, but there is a way to break free from the shackles. It require the citizens of Kentucky from all ethnicities and socioeconomic levels to unite as one and break free from the shackles of tyranny; by gathering together in Frankfort and demanding school choice, and charter schools from your lawmakers. It’s time to exercise the power of your vote and unite under the umbrella of choice and the future of Kentucky children. Kentuckian’s also need to call and write their elected representatives, and repeatedly demand school choice from them.

Works C ited

Kentucky economic growth has slowed by 3.5%. In 2008 11,000 seasonal jobs were lost. (KY budget director, 2009)There were many losses in the manufacturing sector, which is Kentucky’s bread and butter industry. (KY budget Director, 2009) Manufacturing firms have laid off 6,000 employees since 2008. Construction industry lay off 3,600 employees. (KY budget director, 2009)Corporate income and individual income taxes shrunk by 38% and 12.9%.(KY Budget director, 2009) Taxes on cigarettes shrunk by 4.6% in the first two quarters of 2009.(KY budget director, 2009) The Kentucky labor market will continue to struggle and non- farm employment will decline by 58,800.(KY budget director, 2009)
Federal Authorities bust Fischer Homes in Northern Kentucky for using illegal immigrants for profit. (Ludden,2006) 76 illegal’s were arrested along with supervisors and managers for Fischer Homes.(Ludden, 2006) Mr. Williams a construction subcontractor is a framing contractor in the business for 35 years(Ludden, 2006). He says too many jobs getting lost and Americans being laid off in the construction business and illegal’s replacing them for $4 an hour less. (Ludden, 2006)
Illegal Immigrants are stealing the construction and manufacturing jobs in Kentucky, and construction and Manufacturing are the biggest industries in Kentucky. Rounding up illegal’s, and deporting them would leave many jobs open for Kentuckians. One of the steps to fixing the Kentucky economy is to get rid of the illegal’s and give those jobs back to Americans in Kentucky.
Kentucky Office of State Budget Director. 2009. Kentucky Outlook for 2009. Volume 19. Issue 4. Pgs 18-23. Business Perspective Academic Premier. www.ebscohost.com
Jennifer Luden, 2006. Immigration Raid Roils Kentucky Community. NPR. Academic Premier. www.escohost.com

charter schools

“Charter students in middle and high schools showed consistent gains on the math and English exams. The results of pilot schools were less clear. Middle school pilots performed slightly below students in regular middle schools in math and about the same in English. High school pilot performance was a little better, but researchers still deemed those results ambiguous” (Vaznis, 2009).

"The thing that was most surprising given other studies that have been done was the large magnitude of the charter effect in middle school math," said Thomas Kane, a Harvard education and economics professor who lead the research along with Joshua Angrist, an MIT economics professor”(Vaznis, 2009).

“A number of forces account for the differences in returns on education. The most worrisome factor is the long-term impact from poorly performing elementary and secondary public schools, especially in the nation's major urban centers. Inner-city schools leave too many minority children behind. They also handicap the achievements of those students that end up going to college” (Farrel, 2002). Competition can be created by voucher programs and Charter Schools. Voucher programs are given to students in poor achieving public schools. It allows them to go to a private school of their parent’s choice. The voucher covers the private schools tuition. Charter schools force Public schools to raise their standards because if they continue perform poorly they will lose students to charter schools.

Blacks and Hispanic are suffering in poverty compared to whites because of a salary gap between minorities and whites (Farrel, 2002). This gap is because of an inefficient public schools system that doesn’t prepare minorities for college. The only way to fix this is to fix the public school system through accountability and school choice. Vouchers and Charter schools force Public schools to raise their standards.

API is the academic performance index based on state standardized tests. These are very important and are the crux of measureable results. These scores make sure charter and public schools are sufficient for educating our children and are making measurable progress. They are used to show if students at public and charter schools are passing the state standardized exams and making adequate yearly progress according to a formula created by the federal government based on the no child left behind act, which makes both charters and public schools are held accountable. The goal for the statewide tests is 800 (Tony, 2009). There were 4 key findings: The first is that the last three years, Charter Schools in Oakland have consistently outperformed Oakland traditional schools on Median API scores. The traditional public school for 2008 API growth were 656, and 735 for charter schools. The second Key Finding was Charter schools in Oakland did better than traditional schools at every grade level. Oakland Charter Schools outdid public schools at the middle school level by 212 points in 2008.Middles schools for charter system had an API score of 836, and traditional middle school had an API score of 624 (Tony, 2009). 50% of the top ten publics in Oakland were charter schools. All of the high schools in the top 10 in Oakland were charter schools. 69% of charter schools in Oakland outperformed their most similar traditional public school counterpart within a five mile radius and with a similar demographic makeup. Statistically significant analyses showed that being a charter school predicted 86 more points in 2008 API growth scores and 79 more points with the matched comparison sample. Key finding #3 was that Oakland charter schools did better than Oakland’s traditional public school within a number of subgroup populations. The sub groups that the charter schools improved academic performance compared to traditional public schools were Asians, Socio-economically disadvantaged groups, blacks, English learners, and Latin American students. The Key finding #4 was: Charter Schools in Oakland were more likely to meet API and AYP targets in 2008 than the traditional public schools (Tony, 2009).
The Methodology used was a matched comparison analysis that matched charter schools with public schools that had matching demographics. They did analysis of Oakland public schools to assess how the Charter Schools in Oakland were performing compared to traditional public schools in student performance. They used four types of analysis: a longitudinal district level analysis of Oakland Charters in student academic performance compared to traditional Public school, at the elementary, middle school, and high-school level, and how well the Charter schools did in helping minorities improve school performance (Tony, 2009). They also conducted an analysis of 2007-08 of schools meeting their AIP and AYP targets. They did a neighborhood matched comparison analysis that compared a sample of Charters in Oakland to their three most similar traditional public schools in OUSD. There fourth type of analysis that they conducted was regression analysis which predict how many more or fewer points in API score were likely if the school was a Charter. The data used by the Association of Charter Schools to conduct this study was data from the California Department of Education, state academic performance index(API), and Federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data to assess median 2008 API growth scores as well as the % of schools meeting API and AYP targets during 2007-08 school year. API data from 05-06 and 06-07 school years were also studied to understand schools’ state test performance trends (Tony, 2009).

school choice

“Charter students in middle and high schools showed consistent gains on the math and English exams. The results of pilot schools were less clear. Middle school pilots performed slightly below students in regular middle schools in math and about the same in English. High school pilot performance was a little better, but researchers still deemed those results ambiguous” (Vaznis, 2009).

"The thing that was most surprising given other studies that have been done was the large magnitude of the charter effect in middle school math," said Thomas Kane, a Harvard education and economics professor who lead the research along with Joshua Angrist, an MIT economics professor”(Vaznis, 2009).

“A number of forces account for the differences in returns on education. The most worrisome factor is the long-term impact from poorly performing elementary and secondary public schools, especially in the nation's major urban centers. Inner-city schools leave too many minority children behind. They also handicap the achievements of those students that end up going to college” (Farrel, 2002). Competition can be created by voucher programs and Charter Schools. Voucher programs are given to students in poor achieving public schools. It allows them to go to a private school of their parent’s choice. The voucher covers the private schools tuition. Charter schools force Public schools to raise their standards because if they continue perform poorly they will lose students to charter schools.

Blacks and Hispanic are suffering in poverty compared to whites because of a salary gap between minorities and whites (Farrel, 2002). This gap is because of an inefficient public schools system that doesn’t prepare minorities for college. The only way to fix this is to fix the public school system through accountability and school choice. Vouchers and Charter schools force Public schools to raise their standards.

API is the academic performance index based on state standardized tests. These are very important and are the crux of measureable results. These scores make sure charter and public schools are sufficient for educating our children and are making measurable progress. They are used to show if students at public and charter schools are passing the state standardized exams and making adequate yearly progress according to a formula created by the federal government based on the no child left behind act, which makes both charters and public schools are held accountable. The goal for the statewide tests is 800 (Tony, 2009). There were 4 key findings: The first is that the last three years, Charter Schools in Oakland have consistently outperformed Oakland traditional schools on Median API scores. The traditional public school for 2008 API growth were 656, and 735 for charter schools. The second Key Finding was Charter schools in Oakland did better than traditional schools at every grade level. Oakland Charter Schools outdid public schools at the middle school level by 212 points in 2008.Middles schools for charter system had an API score of 836, and traditional middle school had an API score of 624 (Tony, 2009). 50% of the top ten publics in Oakland were charter schools. All of the high schools in the top 10 in Oakland were charter schools. 69% of charter schools in Oakland outperformed their most similar traditional public school counterpart within a five mile radius and with a similar demographic makeup. Statistically significant analyses showed that being a charter school predicted 86 more points in 2008 API growth scores and 79 more points with the matched comparison sample. Key finding #3 was that Oakland charter schools did better than Oakland’s traditional public school within a number of subgroup populations. The sub groups that the charter schools improved academic performance compared to traditional public schools were Asians, Socio-economically disadvantaged groups, blacks, English learners, and Latin American students. The Key finding #4 was: Charter Schools in Oakland were more likely to meet API and AYP targets in 2008 than the traditional public schools (Tony, 2009).
The Methodology used was a matched comparison analysis that matched charter schools with public schools that had matching demographics. They did analysis of Oakland public schools to assess how the Charter Schools in Oakland were performing compared to traditional public schools in student performance. They used four types of analysis: a longitudinal district level analysis of Oakland Charters in student academic performance compared to traditional Public school, at the elementary, middle school, and high-school level, and how well the Charter schools did in helping minorities improve school performance (Tony, 2009). They also conducted an analysis of 2007-08 of schools meeting their AIP and AYP targets. They did a neighborhood matched comparison analysis that compared a sample of Charters in Oakland to their three most similar traditional public schools in OUSD. There fourth type of analysis that they conducted was regression analysis which predict how many more or fewer points in API score were likely if the school was a Charter. The data used by the Association of Charter Schools to conduct this study was data from the California Department of Education, state academic performance index(API), and Federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data to assess median 2008 API growth scores as well as the % of schools meeting API and AYP targets during 2007-08 school year. API data from 05-06 and 06-07 school years were also studied to understand schools’ state test performance trends (Tony, 2009).